Adding a blocked and removed Client device back to Unifi Network Appliance

I recently needed to isolate a device on my network (laptop) from the internet and all other devices.

In this particular circumstance, I was running a Unifi setup, the device was connected to one of my Wi-Fi networks (Call it SSID-A), and I needed to isolate it.

In isolating the device, rather than going through the time-consuming process of creating full-fledged network/firewall blocks for the single device, I decided instead to block it. To do this, I went to Client Devices -> Device -> Block.

After blocking the device, I actually completely reformatted it. While I was doing this, I made the mistake of deciding to remove this device from Unifi (Client Devices -> Device -> Remove). The justification being that I assumed it would just automatically rejoin it when I connected back to the Wi-Fi. This unfortunately had unintended consequences.

It appears that when a device is removed from Unifi, at least in version 10.0.162 , if the device was blocked, it does not get unblocked before being removed. There also does not appear to be a block list you can go to to review blocked or removed devices, so there is no visible way to recover the device.

After spending quite some time trying to contact Unifi support for assistance and getting nowhere past "Send us your support files, MAC addresses etc" with zero context around why, and with no useful suggestions on how to fix the issue, I managed to stumble onto a solution myself.

Solution

Without wanting to remove my current SSID like some sites online suggested, this led me towards the following solution that ended up working.

1. Create a new Wi-Fi network or SSID
2. Join the device to the new Wi-Fi network / SSID, it should be able to do this as the block was not for this specific SSID
3. Once the device (hopefully for you) joins the network
   1. Go back to the Unifi Device List
   2. Select the Device
   3. Select "Block" (stay with me here)
   4. Select "Unblock"
4. Back on the Device, attempt to rejoin the original Wi-Fi network / SSID

That's it! Hopefully you have the same successful results that I did!